The Virginia men's tennis team finished up an enormously successful season this past weekend, defeating North Carolina in the ACC Tournament to become ACC Tournament champions in addition to ACC regular season champions.
"I credit all of the younger guys on the team," junior Treat Huey said. "They stepped up big this whole year. Freshmen Houston [Barrick], Lee [Singer] and Dom [Inglot] -- they just did a great job this whole season and throughout the ACC --they carried us almost the whole year."
The emergence of the younger players was a theme throughout the entire season. Barrick and Inglot proved to be a formidable doubles team and were ranked for a large portion of the season. They gave the team a boost on the second court behind the nearly unstoppable pairing of Huey and junior Somdev Devvarman.
In singles, the freshmen gave major contributions throughout the year. Inglot emerged as the number three player for singles and gave Virginia a luxury most teams don't have: a third-ranked singles player. Barrick won nearly all of his singles matches in ACC play with a record of 9-2, and early in the year when the Cavaliers played several ranked teams out of conference, Singer won the point that clinched the match.
"I believe it's a tremendous accomplishment," Virginia coach Brian Boland said. "We play in the best league in the country. To go 11-0 -- I'm so proud of the guys."
The big key to Virginia's success, however, has been the consistent play of Huey and Devvarman. As the Cavaliers' only returning players with significant experience, the two juniors stepped up their play and leadership for Virginia, finishing the season ranked No. 2 in doubles with a record of 24-5. Devvarman ranked No.2 in singles and Huey ranked No. 20. Both players rarely lost a match, going a combined 49-6 and carrying the team at times this year.
The Cavaliers came into this season with the goal of going undefeated in the ACC. They had gone undefeated two years ago, but lost two ACC matches and fell to Duke in the ACC Tournament final last spring.
"The thing is, my first year we were undefeated, and last year we were not." Devvarman said. "You only know what you actually lose when you actually lose it. Last year it really hurt to actually lose it. So this year we came out completely fired up. Me, Treat and Marko [Miklo], we just stepped it up so much because we knew we did not want to lose any ACC matches."
After losing their first match to No. 1 Georgia in the National Indoor Tournament, Virginia went undefeated until losses to Baylor and Texas. The Cavaliers have won every match since, and go into the NCAA tournament on a 12-match winning streak.
"I think this is one of the hardest working teams I've ever coached," Boland said. "[They are] a team that really has great leadership with Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey who really understand the process. They really understand what it means to go to practice and work hard and stay focused and have the kind of discipline off the court that's necessary to be successful. With all the things that go on in college life, nobody does it better than these guys. So I'm just really proud to be their coach. I've enjoyed it so much. I can't remember a year in my 11 years as a head coach that I've enjoyed the process more. It's been a great journey and the best is hopefully yet to come."
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